Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Quotes of the day

Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.--Minna Thomas Antrim

Had [Yahoo] done things right with GeoCities, there would be no Facebook, YouTube or MySpace.--anonymous

How to distinguish which theory explains the behavior of any one actor is determined by the response to evidence AGAINST one’s prior position – do you change your beliefs at all?--William Easterly

Yet awards provide emotional responses—gratification, victimization, schadenfreude—that makes the ritual perversely compelling. Understanding that the process is fatally flawed, or even corrupt, seems to do nothing to diminish its appeal.--Jonathan Chait

I finally knew exactly where I stood. My father hated his enemies more than he loved his sons.--Omar Bin Laden

Naming an unborn child is a powerful thing. It is a way to acknowledge to the world what God already knows. A way to say ‘life is precious — this life is precious.'--anonymous

Where's the notification so you don't give additional contracts to folks who are under investigation? If somebody fixed your garage door and they defrauded you-or, rather, you thought they defrauded you-would you give them more business? Nobody else in the country would do that [besides the administrators of the $787 billion stimulus program].--Senator Tom Coburn

Overall, Amtrak is being subsidized to the tune of $32 per passenger according to a new study. But, that includes big time losers like the line between San Antonio and Los Angeles which is losing $462 per passenger. Meanwhile, the Acela, a fast train running between Washington D.C., New York and Boston is actually making money.--Jay Yarrow

So as long as Medicare patients generate more revenue than the marginal cost of treating one additional patient, they're profitable for the hospital--and probably even lower everyone else's bill a little bit, by at least partially defraying some overhead. Of course, if you think that in a universe without Medicare, many or most seniors would probably have found a way to consume a bunch of health care, then yes, Medicare is free riding. But moral calumny aside, the thing about patients whose insurance doesn't cover the average cost of treating them is that they cannot be 100% of your patient pool. Someone has to cover the cost of that MRI machine. If the public option does manage to crowd out other insurance--as it might well do, with the ability to dictate price controls--then suddenly, the public option won't be cheap any more. Hello, fiscal crisis.--Megan McArdle